The "NSA is Evil" book you mention is Bamford, who is respected in and out of the intel community... it's worth a look...
It demonstrates how gov't secrecy has gone from productive to repressive, affecting not just budgets for silly wayward CYA projects, to well-intentioned but insane projects that threaten democracy.
"Reading is Fundamental" <g>
It may surprise you to know a good percentage of the intel community feel the same way. FWIW, my professional career out of college started at what is now SAIC working on projects for NSA, with some incredibly intelligent and wonderful folks, eventually bumping into the inevitable misguided criminals that exist at all levels of technology and gov't.
"Project Northwoods" is an example of an attempt by those who are highly-trained in military methods, with complete disregard for human life as part of that training. As you may know, this was a JCS-sanctioned attempt at creating bogus "attack" on Americans, including real attacks killing real Americans, to blame on the Cubans.
Protection of civilization by a military requires aggressive training, but must have Constitutionally-mandated civilian control.
The difference between having pit bulls always ready for battle to protect the country, and having a threat of military coup, is open and fully-disclosed gov't.
Actions such as Project Northwoods remind us that such actions are able to be planned as a matter of course, at the highest levels, and we in both military and civilian life must be vigilant. The mass media won't be the vanguard -- if you've read anything under the heading of "The Mighty Wurlitzer", showing the influence that our $2 trillion/year gov't behemoth has on mass media, you'll realize you won't learn about gov't malfeasance at the highest levels from Time magazine.
Rather than "Gov't is hiding everything" ...it' that officials just naturally hide what they can, in their own interest, as in any large organization.
As shown in an excellent book "Dependent on DC", C. Twight, the bureaucracy quite naturally acts to protect itself, a great deal of non-DOD departmental expenditures are for "Public Relations", and much of DOD expenditures are for deliberate deception, not from enemies who know they are being targeted, but from the American public, who don't.
The solution - full disclosure and transparency, reinstate FOIA, and, failing that, tax revolt, to show politicians and the bureaucracy that Americans deserve full accountability of every dollar, and to know what their gov't is up to at the highest levels.
JMO |
